I'd like to begin by asking you to close
your eyes imagine that you've just come
home from work you want to relax you sit
down on the couch
just breathe you look to the side and
you realize that it's raining and then
you look again to the window and see
that the window is open you think at
first everything is calm but then
everything goes haywire what if my
floors get damaged what if the rain
damage impacts my entire apartment what
if there's a flood what if I have to
move what if your thoughts are blinded
your mind is racing your heart is
beating right out of your chest your
your thoughts are just everywhere and
then you lose it all now I have
something to tell you
anxiety sucks but do you know the worst
part about it is it's not the dizziness
or the palpitations or the excessive
overthinking no it's the stereotype that
goes with it mental illness has a stigma
associated with it think about it we're
fixated on this idea that mental illness
is associated with incompetence
fragility failure when a friend or a
loved one is having a moment of
vulnerability we say that it's a mental
breakdown when they're having issues or
when they're having struggles we call
that crazy and it's true
why because mental health has a stigma
we consider mental illnesses to be
burdens traits of people that make them
undesirable less important less value
and this is a huge problem if we
continue to treat mental health like
this we'll never be able to understand
our loved ones we'll never be able to
understand those
who need our help and so when you leave
this talk today I want you to realize
one thing you have the ability to save
and impact a life by the way you treat
others now I believe that it's time to
wait change the way we think about
mental health we have ways to identify
glucose levels and pregnancy hormones
but what about anxiety why don't we have
a way to detect elevated stress levels
everybody gets anxious right we get
anxious because we don't know what will
happen we're afraid we're scared fear is
normal in fact it's evolutionary but
when we worry excessively when we get so
scared we develop anxiety but okay
everybody gets anxious instead of
creating a stereotype about it instead
of making a stigma what if we try and
make a change there are 40 million
Americans who live with anxiety
currently that's 1/8 the population who
feels alone misunderstood unsure about
who to talk to how to get help do you
know what's worse 35 to 50 percent of
those cases go undiagnosed that's up to
20 million people who don't get the care
that they need now this is a huge
problem so if we think about biomedical
advancements what's the first thing that
comes to our mind cancer if cancer goes
undiagnosed or even untreated the
problems build up on itself leading to a
cascade of cellular trauma that results
in fatality anxiety is a cancer of the
mind it's something that eats at the
conscience it's something that weakens
the heart and destroys the self
something that leaves you feeling empty
feeling alone like there's no one to
help
like there's no one to understand and
it's about time we fight this problem
it's about time we find a way to detect
anxiety so research has shown that there
are specific biomarkers or proteins
enzymes and hormones that prote float
freely in bodily fluids like blood urine
and saliva so basically what we can do
is we can measure these concentrations
of the biomarkers and theoretically that
would allow us to detect anxiety levels
and we can aid in the prognosis or the
clinical identification of anxiety so
what do I do
I revert the team of bio engineers here
and we have developed and innovated a
way to identify anxiety levels using
this this is ten cents this is a
biomedical device through which we can
detect elevated stress levels this
device can tell you if you have anxiety
levels if you have elevated stress
levels and it can help diagnose anxiety
and provide further recommended care
further treatments for patients across
the nation so why did we create this
device alright so we're going to take a
quick poll audience participation all
right raise your hand if you're a
working individual or if you are student
all right of what I can see that's like
everyone all right okay so now raise
your hand if you've ever been stressed
that's like two hands for me and both
legs look around you we have different
ages different end ethnicities different
backgrounds different genders but
something unites us all we all get
stressed we all get anxious but in
different ways dealing with anxiety is
no easy feat an anxiety affects us all
but in different ways
what we're
for you may not work for me and it's for
this reason that it's so important to
find a way to detect your stress levels
find a way to help you the patient and
tell doctors what will work for you
given your daily routines your genetic
history we want to serve you the patient
look around you we are surrounded by
some of the brightest minds I may know
the next Nobel Prize winning physicist
the next revolutionary engineers the
doctor who will cure cancer in an
academic environment like this one we're
surrounded by inspiration excellence
everywhere we go
but unfortunately this comes at a price
there are over seventeen million people
in this country attending a higher
education institution like this one and
across the board the most commonly
diagnosed mental illness anxiety now as
a student I get stressed we all get
stressed amid the deadlines projects
exams homework assignments conferences
we all get stressed we all get anxious
now the more we get anxious the more we
get stressed the greater toll it takes
on our body research has shown that
anxiety actually changes the way our
brain functions
it changes the brain itself anxiety
results in changes in the gray and white
matter of our brain changes in the
functionality of the amygdala the center
of the brain responsible for emotional
cognition and decision-making two very
important things now your brain is your
brain your heart is your heart and
that's why it's so important for the
identification of stress levels to be
entirely your own now the problem with
the state of the art is that no current
technique exists there's no way to
real-time
detect anxiety levels no way to tell
what your stress levels are at the point
of care and that - quantitatively so
okay why is that a problem so right now
in the mental healthcare industry
we spent over 148 billion dollars and
approximately one third of that total 42
billion is spent on anxiety cases alone
anxiety patients according to anxiety
Center org are three to five times more
likely to visit a doctor and six times
more likely to be hospitalized for an
anxiety related condition
okay so right now sure we can diagnose
anxiety but how do we do that diagnosis
of anxiety happens in two ways one
through the DSM the DSM is a diagnostic
manual that attempts to narrowly
categorize diverse experiences of
patients the second way is through the
Penn State worry questionnaire a list of
16 questions filled with vague
statements like my worries overwhelmed
me and I personally like this one I come
not to worry about things now I'm a bio
engineer and so I was in the engineer I
have two problems with this one that
it's heavily biased and two its ancient
we're in an age of technological
advancement especially in biomedicine
and all we have to diagnose one of the
most prevalent mental health conditions
is a book and a high school level
questionnaire has problem number one
problem number two is the cost initial
psychiatric evaluations can cost up to
three hundred dollars for a patient and
during the psychiatric evaluation a
blood test can be ordered but a blood
test can cost up to fifteen hundred
dollars for an uninsured patient and it
takes up to a week to process results
that's one week's time where the
clinician can provide no insight no help
and no understand
the patient about what to do or how to
help this is expensive inefficient and
unacceptable so okay let's say that we
already have a patient diagnosed with
anxiety as of the case with 6.8 million
Americans so too often we have cases in
mental health where we have misdiagnosis
or we have ineffective dosages at best
this is irrelevant
but at worst this is deadly wouldn't you
want to know if there was a way to death
test your Diagnostics your identity
identify your stress levels in less than
five minutes a less than 5% of the cost
wouldn't you want to know it's the
medication you've been prescribed will
work on your body so with the
implementation of such a device we can
from a saliva sample we can analyze
biomarkers in the saliva and we can find
concentrations related to elevated
stress levels basically what we can do
is we can determine elevated stress
levels relative to bite baseline if it's
higher or lower relative to normal and
we can recommend further care helping
physicians nationwide helping patients
nationwide this way we cannot only
qualitatively but also quantitatively
tell you what your stress levels are
monitor changes over time and provide
you with the medical attention and the
personalized care that you need
now this is something that's never been
done before especially in the field of
mental health personalized medicine is
so important it's what will allow us to
make medicines for you care for you the
patient and provide all of our resources
all of our help for you mental health is
an enigma
countless diagnoses have been made
qualitatively with no quantitative
results to back them up for the first
time we're introducing not only way to
quantify stress levels but also a way to
do it in real time so that we can know
within five minutes where your elevated
stress levels are and how we can help
you immediately we are bringing
personalized medicine to the uncharted
territory of mental health now the
movement towards personalized medicine
is one that's funded by both the FDA and
the NIH the National Institutes of
Health our device right now within the
next year seeks to conduct clinical
trials as well as gain FDA approval with
personalized care in mental health we'll
be able to increase our preventive care
we'll be able to help patients
nationwide we'll be able to give people
the help that they need
personalized medicine has the ability to
improve lives everywhere and mental
health awareness is really important if
we stand up for mental health we're
standing up for each other we're
standing up for a better society a
stronger society a more progressive
society we're standing up against a
stigma a problem a stereotype we're
standing up for each other and we're
standing up together to fight anxiety
it's time to find a way out it's time to
show people that together we can stand
up and fight anxiety and we can stand up
and fight for mental health now before I
finish I'd like to take a moment to
thank my team without who I wouldn't be
here Ayaka Hoka margaret barbero and
karthik Balakrishnan and i'd like to
also thank our advisers professor de
pungent pond as well as dr. is mishra
and Khan last but not least I'd like to
thank my parents who are sitting over
here without their help and without
their support I wouldn't be here today
so thank you
you